Leviticus 1-3- "Sacrifice"

Leviticus 1-3

Romans 12:1-2

“Sacrifice”

I am sure we have all heard the story of the farmer who asked his chicken and his pig to make him breakfast for the week.

The chicken came up with the idea of bacon and eggs.

The chicken provided the eggs and the pig provided the bacon.

The chicken was more than willing to provide eggs, in fact lots of eggs, she just kept laying them and there they were.

The pig, on the other hand, who was a little bit slow, as soon as he realised that he would have to sacrifice himself to provide the bacon…….he ran…….he rolled…….He wasn’t willing to sacrifice himself just to provide breakfast for his farmer.

You see, there is sacrifice…………..and then there is sacrifice…..

One could say that the pig’s sacrifice would have shown full commitment, and the chicken’s sacrifice was perhaps half commitment. It didn’t cost the chicken too much of a personal loss.

Today, as we start out series in Leviticus, we are going to look at the sacrificial system that God set up through his servant Moses. And it is perhaps important for us to know that it was to Moses whom God spoke to, who then spoke these words to his people, which we now have before us in the bible.

Moses was the very mouthpiece of God.

Now before we get to the types of sacrifices themselves that Moses talked about…..it is worth having a look at why God set up this sacrificial system in the first place and in order to do that, we need to go all the way back to creation- the garden of Eden.

When God created the world and everything in it, and he created us humans, male and female, he created us to be in communion with Him. He created Adam and Eve to walk in relationship with Him.

Friends, that is what you were created for, to be in relationship with God: to be with God.

And this is how Adam and Eve lived in the garden of Eden, for a little while anyway. They talked with God, they walked with God in the cool of the day, they enjoyed relationship with Him.

But then, as we read in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve did what we all do in our hearts- they walked away from God: they didn’t trust God at his word, they broke his command, they sinned, and that perfect relationship was broken.

Adam and Eve rightly felt shame because of their sin, but because God was and is a loving and merciful God, he didn’t want the relationship to be finished and so God initiated a way for that relationship to continue.

Even though, after the fall, the relationship was now different, since it was between a Holy, pure God and sinful, impure people, God still made a way for that relationship to continue.

And so in Genesis 3:21, we read that God performed the very first sacrifice in history, as He made both Adam and Eve clothes from the skins of animals to cover their nakedness and shame. God sacrificed an animal to make them clothes which covered their shame, after they had sinned.

In this, God still kept his word, the price of sin was death, as he promised, but instead of Adam and Eve dying that day- an animal died instead. Something also died within Adam and Eve that day also. That relationship between God and man was no longer perfect but it was still a relationship, a relationship between a Holy God and sinful people.

And so now, as we get to Leviticus, we come to a time when God had brought his people out of the slavery from Egypt and brought them to the desert, to Mount Sinai. And his people had built a tabernacle as God had instructed them, as a place where God dwelt amongst his people (as we read in Exodus) and now as we get to Leviticus, we read God instructed Moses of how to use the tabernacle and what the tabernacle was for.

Remember the tabernacle was like a mobile temple, that moved around the desert.

God instructed Moses about the sacrificial system to be used at the tabernacle and the whole purpose of the sacrificial system, was the same as back in the garden: it was to make a way for a holy God to live with a sinful people.

If God was not with His people, the Israelites were just like all the pagan nations around them. God wanted to be amongst His people.

We can see this desire for God to commune with His people and each other, even within the first three sacrifices that are described in the book of Leviticus. The burnt offering, the grain offering and the peace offering. They all led to communion with the Lord and one another- literally.

The burnt offering was just for the Lord, that is why the whole animal was burnt up- nothing was left.

The grain offering which accompanied the burnt offering was for both the Lord and the priests. The priests would keep a portion of the grain offering.

And the third offering, which was the peace offering was given to the Lord, the priest and the person who made the offering. And so during a peace offering the person who made the offering, would have a meal with the priest and the Lord, hence it was literally a way of God communing with his people.

In those days, sharing a meal was a way of affirming relationships.

God was affirming his relationship between Him and His people.

It’s amazing to think, that despite the Israelites being saved from the Egyptian army, despite them witnessing the waters open up, despite witnessing the plagues, despite witnessing God provide water and food for them in the desert, despite witnessing a pillar of cloud and fire leading them….despite all of the that……their hearts still wandered after other so-called gods.

God set up this sacrificial system in the desert, because he knew they were still sinful and impure : He knew their hearts still had a tendency to drift away from Him, and so they still needed a way to commune with a Holy God.

The clearest example of their sinful hearts, was when Moses went up the mountain to commune with God, and the people at the bottom of the mountain, melted their gold and made a golden calf which they started to worship.

They worshipped what they made with their own hands.

Friends, no matter how long you may have been a Christian, no matter how long you have been following Jesus as your Lord and saviour, we can never claim in this life that we can sin no more. We will always struggle with sin, some sins more than others, some periods better than others…..and so this is why Jesus taught us to pray daily that God would forgive our sins.

We don’t need to pretend we have this sin thing down pat, we don’t need to pretend we have made perfection.

Some of the most godly people often comment that the older they get, the more they know they are a sinner- a sinner who has been saved by grace- but we will get to that grace bit later.

For now, we are going to look at what the first three types of sacrifices that God set up for his people, had in common.

And the first thing that all these 3 sacrifices had in common, the burnt offering, the grain offering and the peace offering, is that they were  all a  “pleasing aroma to the Lord”

Look at verse 9 with me:

And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, as a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord

Look at chapter 2 verse 9

And the priest shall take from the grain offering its memorial portion and burn this on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord

Look at chapter 3 verse 5

A pleasing aroma to the Lord

These three sacrifices had the effect of pleasing the Lord, but why would the Lord be pleased with these sacrifices? Because it meant he could be in relationship with his people.Friends, God desires that we walk in relationship with Him- and when we walk in right relationship with him, He is pleased.

And this brings me to the second thing that all these sacrifices had in common- they all demanded that the person gave their best, whether it was the best bull from the herd, a bull that had no physical defects, or whether it was the best sheep or goat, or whether it was the best flour, or the best and most expensive spice- God demanded that they gave him their best.

God didn’t want their dregs, he didn’t want their left overs- he wanted their best.

He wanted to see if they could trust Him with their best.

Friends, God wants all of us.

He doesn’t just want us to give him an hour on a Sunday, but he wants all of us.

He doesn’t just want a section of our hearts and desires but he wants all our hearts.

Look at Romans 12:1 with me:

I appeal to you therefore brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Our whole lives are living sacrifices to God. Our whole lives are spiritual worship to God, that is our work life, our family life, our church life, our hobby life- it is all an act of worship to God.

You may be thinking…..what kind of God would want that kind of commitment from us?

And the answer……the kind of God who has already shown he is fully committed to us…a kind of God who really did bring the bacon to the table.

A kind of God who is all in for us.

A kind of God who literally moved heaven and earth so that we could be in relationship with Him.

The writer of Hebrews made it clear that this whole sacrificial system that God set up at that time for his people, was just a shadow of the better and the perfect sacrifice to come and that was Jesus.

When a person took their animal to the priest to be burnt, remember, their best and most valuable animal, they would place their hands on it at the entrance of the tabernacle.

This was a symbolic gesture that represented the transfer of sins from the person to the animal- and so in a sense, the animal would take the death that the person deserved due to their sin. It was like the animal was dying in their place.

And so when an animal was sacrificed, two things happened.

1.        There was expiation- a removal of sin

2.        There was propitiation- an appeasement of God’s wrath

But most importantly, as the animal was sacrificed, it meant that a Holy God could continue to commune with a sinful people.

Friends, when Jesus, the lamb of God, died on that cross 2,000 years ago, he took all of my sins, all of your sins onto his shoulders. He then died the death that my , your sins deserved. He appeased the wrath of his Father. The wrath that should have been for us.

And even more than that- he not only took our sins, but he gave us his righteousness with his Father, he gave us his right relationship with God.

And so now, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we can walk in a right relationship with God.  We can do what God created us to do- to walk with him by his spirit now, and for eternity.

Friends, God went all in on this relationship with you…are you all in with Him?

Let us pray